i have noticed that this formum sucks, no-one ever replies to any post i make, i have asked for help with several types of mods and no-one ever attempts to reply with help, so if you have someone who is actually still TRYING to mod this game, and needs help, why not offer advise??? most people offer handy bits of help to "big modders" but not us little guys, BTW, newsflash, those "big modders" are gone now days

they most likely don't give a response because you could easily press the search button up top and search up your topic.

thanks for making my point dude, very helpfull

Let's start over -- what do you want help with?

alright i'll give this another try, first, alpha channels in photoshop, how do you make reflective ingame surface, (for example the way a sabre reflects the light) i already have the proper txi files, but still no shinny reflect, also what texure does everyone else use for metal surfaces. Another point, will grey and black texs reflect ingame? Next up ending story mod, is it possible to have the game continue after the ending cutscene, if so how do i start? i have several well written darkside ending contiuing ideas. Of course i am not asking for a step by step tut. of uncharted waters, i just need a "possible or impossible" check. i am willing to do all the work for my mod ideas, i just need some simple guidance. i am not a complete dummy when it comes to modding, i know quite a bit, i have even relased one mod on this site(granted no-one liked it) but i am not a progammer eihter so if anyone has ANY HELP, please talk to me like i am 4 years old. anyway thats a small sample of what i have in mind, i have much more, but, lets see if i can get help with this first

I can't be of much help with Photoshop -- maybe Prime, svцsh, or Suchan271 could help you there. You're talking about the saber hilt right?

As for the second question -- it should be possible to inject an epilogue into the story line. Much of the game is driven by dialog files which call scripts. So the first thing to do is find out where you want to intercept the normal gameflow. I'd start with Malak's dying dialog and trace out the script calls. It's not difficult to see which scripts get called if you use DLGEdit in test-drive mode. Then you would want to find an appropriate place to insert your script -- or change the EndConversation field of the dialog so your script fires right after the dialog ends.

That script will be the entry point into your new mod. After that -- you can pretty much do what you want.

I know what you mean by there not being many "big modders" around. For all of the clammor that was associated with him, at least mgnails was/is attempting to make something big. Hopefully we'll get some more people willing to try.

thanks for the info, basicly i am trying something VERY big too, a contuation that may result in a complete re-do/total convertion, nothing impossible mind you (empire vs sith? i know better) just something very big, i have a pretty good idea of what is and is not possible, and i think i can pull this off with extreme amounts of work, and a little help in the know-how department, but really thanks for the help

Hi their want to apologize first off I did read your post and I was trying to test my theory, before giving you mis information anyways this is not tested so bear with me as I have not made any new shaders for this game.
edit :this does work and I have used this technique often
You have the right idea about the alpha channels, The first thing you want is the skin or texture file you will be working with . Make One layer specifically for the overall area of the hilt even if it just solid gray to use as the selection of the alpha channel.

Alpha channels can be made quite easily if you know Photoshop, I will assume you don’t and try to explain this the most direct way.

Every time you make a selection ( ie marching ants you can go to the selection drop down and save the selection, this in essence will create your new alpha channel. Now It will be stark black and white no gray tones. An alpha channel is used in supported 3d programmes to mask off areas of your graphic, the intensity of black in the alpha channel will dictate how much of the original design that you see. Ex. Black will be 100% transparent and white will be 100% opaque keeping this in mind we will attempt to make your custom hilt shiny by using say a light tone (25% black or so) your original image will show through 75% and the other will be the gun metal or whatever .txi file your working with.

Behind the layers palette you will see two other tabs, one is channels and one is paths.
We will be focusing on the channels. The first thing you need is a layer that will be the hilt you can have as many layers as you would like but you need all the alpha information in one channel as you can only save tga.s with one alpha channel

Go ahead and Ctrl + left click your hilt’s layer’s thumbnail icon in the layer palette, ( the mini image of the actual layer) this will select only the opaque pixel information and not the transparent area. Ok now with the selection active go to the selection drop down and choose save selection. You have just made an alpha channel go to the channels pallet and check it out. You will see a white hilt area on a black backgroud. Ctrl + d to deselect anying that was selected Next we invert the alpha channel. Hit Ctrl+I to invert Still in the alpha channel palette just like the layer there are little eyes next to the thumbnails. This will turn on and of the channels, I want you to click the alpha on so your work space is only the alpha channel now at the top of the channels pallet you see rgb channel now turn it on and you will see a red semi transparent mask of the area that was black should show your graphic through. However this is just a preview of what we want

If you want softer edges you can either use the gaussian blur filter or select the black and go to the selection drop menu and choose feather selection. I would not exceed 2 pixels in this case . Remember apply this only to the alpha channel and not your original artwork.

Now turn off the rgb channel and
Go back on the alpha channel press w to get the magic wand tool and select the black areas that will be the main section of the hilt. Now go to you forground colour and make it light gray now hit g to get the paint bucket fill tool. Fill the selection and make it gray. Now after all that duplicate your document by right clicking the title bar of your document and choosing duplicate. Flatten the image layers > flatten image save this as ???.tga 32 bit make sure you have save with alpha channel check box on.

Make sure the file referred to in the .txi file is the same as your graphics name.

I really hope this helps you. Oh and if you want a really good example of complex alpha channels extract this PMBBL01.tga ( it’s the soldier’s default clothing.) it has shinny spots on the metal backpack notice the detail in the alpha channel.

svцsh

I just thought of this as well…. Alternately you can also make a new alpha channel by right clicking say the blue or green or red channels and copying it naming it alpha and then painting in areas with the a black paint brush tool at say 15 % opacity with airbrush settings for a more detailed result like the soldiers clothes. It’s just a thought give them both a try and see what you like the best Good luck svцsh

actually, this forum is getting worse and worse, it still feeds out lots of good mods and info, but theres more and more spam and stupid questions!!

first big thanks to svosh, and tk, second to doom, i know what you mean, but i assure you i am not spaming, and not asking stupid questions i am actually modding this game, here is a screen of a current projecthttp://gallery51159.fotopic.net/p3814780.html)

this is my custom sabre i am working on by the way anyone know how to make it upgradeable? also to the great photshop master svosh, is it possible to have the reflective alpha channel and still have transparent parts in the tex. ? also i really argree about the stupid questions, i heard one about having vader and fett modded in. 4000 years too early don't you think? what i really want to do is make a mod that will add to the current story line,and flow of events, not distract from it, i mean this is an rpg, it should not be modded like it's an fps

To make the saber upgradable first you need to find one of several post on the subject and second your custome saber uti needs to have all the properties for the upgrade crystals once you have that you need to make a crystal for your saber and add it to upcrstals.2da and add your saber to the appropriate column.

A note of warning when you add a custom name and description to the uti be certain to back up the file. the gff editor is not 100% compatible with KotOR's files so it is possible to corrupt the file.

i have went through all the tutorials on this none really helped, thry didn't make much sence, one read like it was translated from another lang.(BADLY TOO) but i'll give it another go

No problem Seprithro I hope it helped

I have not tried anything like that however. I would think with the nature of alpha channels it would work like that. for the transparent part I suggest 100% black on the alpha channel . You will still have the reflection of the .txi file I would assume
Give it a try and let me know I would be interested in the results.

I would also like to say that I don’t reserve my posts for people that are big name moders, if someone needs a hand and I have the knowledge then I try to help them out.

svцsh

OK, I'm having problems with the alpha channels. It's probably something simple, but I'm not sure. I've been trying to make it work for hours. I follow the steps perfectly, and everything works; until I save. When I hit the save and change the file type to targa (.tga), it either simply won't let me select "alpha channels" for saving, or it will look like it won't let me un-select them, but then if I reopen or use the saved file, the alpha channels are gone. I was wondering if anyone knows how I can fix this?
Thanks,
-Riv.

Don't worry Sep, you make really good lightsabers.
I always play with either you Deridium Sith Saber or Alora-Sor-Dana's.

I do understand your point about this forum getting worse though.

I'm not really a modder, but if I were I would have helped you (providing I knew how ;) )

By the way just forgot to mention that svцsh really does help out small time modders.
He helped me understand 2da files when I hadn't even touched kotor tool.

wow..how long ago that was, first i want to appoligize for this post, it was made during a very furstrating time, since then everyone especily svцsh tk and others have been very helpfull. i dont know how far back someone had to dif to get this post, but it reminded me of something, noobs need help :D and if they get it they can sometimes make good use of it. and i havent really been that helpfull latley, so any Rivahl , tell me exactly what your doing and what your doing it with, maybe i can get you straightened out, and anyone else who has questions fell free to ask, and thanks

What image editing soft wear are you using Rivahl?

Some versions of Photoshop will not save the tga at 32 bits with one alpha channel. Unless you save it with as a copy then rename the file after.

Also make sure there no extra alpha channels ( more then one )and flatten the image as well. All tga’s for kotor have to be in rgb color. And can have only RGB channel RED channel BLUE channel, GREEN channel, and an alpha channel named alpha1 to keep with all the other default textures.

Some older versions of PhotoShop are picky about things like this I hope this helps sort out your problems, if not get back to us so we can help you.
svцsh

I understand where yu are coming from Sep. If i can, I will attempt to help anyone who needs it. I have only made 1 mod, however, and its still a beta. So anything really big I haven't been involved in. Just minor stuf.

I haven't checked concerning alpha channels but here is a tutorial for GIMP: http://www.rru.com/~meo/gimp/Tutorial/)

Um, Darth333... who are you replying to??? :confused: :D

Sorry, but I immediatly reconsidered after I posted, and deleted. You guys are TOO QUICK!. :D Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for the reply, D333.

wow, I love the way this ancient post keeps coming up to bite me in the @$$ :D oh well it's a good leason i suppose; don't whine too much :D and never make an @$$ of yourself, it'll take awhile to live it down on-line :D

You know you could always delete the thread Sep... :D

Originally posted by tk102
Um, Darth333... who are you replying to??? :confused: :D

Eh, I was replying to CaptainSkye's question about GIMP.... but the question disappeared after I logged out :D

locking this old thread ;)